Manager Robbie Stockdale reflects on the week and looks ahead to Dale’s Sky Bet League Two fixture against Bradford City…
“It [the week] has been good. There has been a good reaction to the disappointment of last Saturday,” said the Gaffer.
“I asked the players on Monday morning for a reaction. We reviewed the game and recognised the areas where we didn’t play at our best. Training has had a good intensity - it has been wet, so that has added a bit of slip to the passing of the ball and the movements, and I’ve been pleased with where we’ve come to this week.”
He continued: “We reflect on every game. We know we didn’t play well enough on Saturday and we recognise the areas we need to improve on to get results. I stand by that if we play to our best, more often than not we get the right result, but unfortunately, for reason or another, we weren’t quite able to do that last week. It hurt, but we’ve got to use that pain now to move forward and hopefully get a good result at Bradford.”
Dale head into the game at the Utilita Energy Stadium having lost just one league game on the road this season, which as on the opening day of the campaign away at Harrogate Town.
“We’ve had some really good results on the road. We obviously want to continue that but we know that only comes if we perform and perform to our max, and that’s what we’ve been stressing to our players.
“Yes, use the pain of the Oldham game to motivate you to put it right. We’re doing that as staff.
“We’re questioning ourselves as staff - do we do the right things and do we train the right way? Most of the season we can honestly say yes we have because the results have shown that, so we reflect as always, we plan, do, review, and that’s just been the process this week. The boys look in a good place.”
Stockdale is expecting a tough encounter against the Bantams.
“They’re all tough. We accept where their strengths are but we also try and focus on our won strengths and possibly highlight weaknesses that we can as well.
“Derek [Adams, Bradford City Manager] got promoted last year with a team [Morecambe] that people maybe didn’t fancy to get promoted, and he’s at a club now that has expectations.
“It’ll be a big crowd and I’m asking our players to embrace the challenge and put on a good performance, and if we get the performance right, it gives us a great chance to get something out of the game.”
And the Boss says that he’s got a full fit squad to choose from going into the match.
“At the moment, everybody is fit and available. We’ve had everybody on the training pitch - training has had a really good intensity about it. We feel that all the players are chomping at the bit, so whoever is fortunate enough to play on Saturday, the better play well, otherwise, someone will come in and take their place.”
Watch the Gaffer’s interview in full HERE.